1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to the field of network management and, more specifically, to visualization of changes and trends over time in performance data over a network path.
2. Description of the Related Art
Traditional network management systems allow a network administrator to troubleshoot network problems using a graphical user interface (GUI). In some instances, the GUIs may include such features as a topology view of the network, a view of a network path taken by a particular service, and a view of network statistics for a particular node in the network. The topology view of the network may include a layout of all nodes and the particular IP address for each particular node. The view of a network path taken by packets associated with a particular service may be displayed by highlighting each node in the network path in the topology view. The view of network statistics for a particular node may be displayed when a network administrator zooms in on a particular node in the topology view by selecting that node.
Utilizing such network management systems, the network administrator may check network statistics for each node individually in order to troubleshoot any issues with the network. The GUI may display network statistics, such as a CPU utilization rate, memory utilization rate and link utilization rate, for a particular node in a single view. Furthermore, the GUI may track a particular network statistic over time by plotting that network statistic on a graph where the x-axis is associated with time and the value of the network statistic is tracked on the y-axis.
What is needed in the art is an improved approach for visualizing performance data for multiple nodes of a network path in a common view.
For clarity, identical reference numbers have been used, where applicable, to designate identical elements that are common between figures. It is contemplated that features of any of the example embodiments may be incorporated in other embodiments without further recitation.